Don't listen to SJWs or James Gunn: Not wanting a black actress to play Mary Jane does not make you racist

Here we go again. Yet another beloved character potentially undergoing a “race change”. Fans of the source material hate it and are called racists for doing so. Not just by social justice warriors, but by journalists and even directors like James Gunn.

For some backstory, there's been rumours that black actress Zendaya has been chosen to play Mary Jane Watson in Sony/Marvel's Spider-Man reboot. The character is best known as a quirky white redhead. In no way has she ever been depicted as black.

This, has obviously angered a lot of people, because she's simply miscast. And it's so easy for people, such as ScreenCrush's Matt Singer to call those against the change 'racists'.

Here's some of the piss-poor examples of “racism” Singer used to justify his race-card usage.

“Retroactively changing the race of an existing character with an established skin tone and/or physiognomy is just dumb. No one enjoys this pitiful practice in pandering” and “Why can’t they just cast a REAL, good-looking redhead?”

So what's wrong with these complaints? Yeah, it's a pitiful practice in pandering. This mindless attempts to appear progressive overwrite loyalty to source material. The best course of action, indeed, is to do as the second example states and cast a real, good-looking redhead.

It doesn't matter if Zendaya can get the personality of MJ down pat. If Seth Rogen could get the personality of Captain America down to a science, he still wouldn't be a good fit for the character. Appearance matters.

“For me, if a character's primary attribute - the thing that makes them iconic - is the color of their skin, or their hair color, frankly, that character is shallow and sucks. For me, what makes MJ MJ is her alpha female playfulness, and if the actress captures that, then she'll work. And, for the record, I think Zendaya even matches what I think of as MJ's primary physical characteristics - she's a tall, thin model - much more so than actresses have in the past.”

Yes, and as I've previously stated, physical appearance matters. As in RACE matters when casting.

He also brought up the previously controversy over Michael B Jordan playing Johnny Storm.

“When Michael B Jordan was cast as Johnny Storm I didn't understand the uproar. The primary characteristic of Johnny was not, to me, that he was white, or that he had blonde hair, but that he was a fiery, funny, big-mouthed braggart of a hero. I was happy that he was going to be played by one of the finest and most charming young actors out there.”

Okay, so take Johnny Storm and have him be played by a talking panda that exhibits all the same traits. Doesn't sound very much like Johnny. And despite how awesome Michael B Jordan is (he's downright awesome) he was miscast.

And it's not just fans of source material who get upset when things like this are changed. George Takei was not a fan when Sulu turned out to be gay in Star Trek Beyond, despite the move being done to honour the actor.

The reason being is this: stop changing things for the sake of social justice and to fit quotas. If you want Spider-Man to have a black love interest, invent a new character. That's much better than modifying existing ones.

Besides, by inventing new black characters, you're adding more to the lore that way. If done right, she/he may even become a character in the comics despite originating in film. But obviously the writers don't have enough confidence in themselves to even try such a thing.

Sorry, we happen to like the source material the way it is. And we're not racist for doing so.

“The filmmakers in charge of Spider-Man: Homecoming have their own great power; the power to inspire people all over the world by representing them onscreen in an inclusive, diverse movie.”

No, they don't. You're not promoting diversity by miscasting people. If you want to be more diverse, as I said, make new characters. When they wanted a black Spider-Man, they didn't make Peter Parker black, they created Miles Morales.

Keep the social justice out of comics and for the love of God, stop calling everyone you disagree with a racist. Because if anyone is small-minded, it's you.

Comments

Seems to me our superheroes are white/created by white ..
Why don’t they get their own? Besides that, it would be totally entertaining to see a politically correct LGBT Lib Batman lecture the bad guys on tolerance and acceptance.

The two things that I find most overbearing about leftist SJW’s are (1) telling me who my friends and enemies are and (2) telling others who my friends and enemies are….how in the Hell would they know on either count.

I’m more concerned about mainstream conservative parties and the media, like the Sun media, not considering “(all)White (are) Privilege/Advantage”, Minority Safe Spaces in universities barring Whites, no Whites need apply employment equity laws etc to be Racist as they never speak out against them (or the Sun keeps journalists like Tarek Fatah who promotes such anti-White attitudes, or when a letter writer does they either condemn the writer or try and brush it off in order not to be be politically correct

Hey Jimmy Reece
I will be perfectly honest with you. I barely skimmed over the article and still have not read most of it because the entire idea is ludicrous. Why should the makers of a film take their directions from somebody who is not employed directly with the making of the film? It is none of their business. If this little puddin is offended because they want a white character replaced by a black character then maybe that decision would upset another little pudding and then the film would not get produced. It’s all about business there Jimmy. These people are in it to make money and that requires a lot of things to go right. The most important is people paying to see the show and if the ratings were bad because of characterization then they wouldn’t listen to the public anymore.

There is an old saying in hockey. The NHL coaches do not ever listen to the fans because in a very short time period they would become one. It’s all about business Jimmy and little muffins who are upset can have their say by not buying a ticket to see the show.

Vote with your dollars. PC Ghostbusters didn’t outright bomb because women and social justice warriors went to see it to spite alleged mouth breathing, bigoted/sexist/racist basement dwellers (a controversy contrived by sony to gain free publicity), but it didn’t make the epic boom sony wanted. Might have been different if the cast and crew didn’t insult the target audience. PC marvel will eventually get the message too. Its the alleged BD’s that go see movies they like twice/three times and buy the flic a n d the video game that makes it gain a profit. You @#$% with these people at your peril, movie makers.

Too bad. Loved captain America VS Ironman. Black panther was awesome … he was a h e r o, not a racial stereotype likeWill Smith. It was so refreshing.

Its not the actress that pisses people off … its the virtue signalling elite that have a team of trolls waiting to gain bonus social points with SJW for attacking their fan base… and oh yeah, being called a racist isn’t nice either : (

I’m too old for this !@#$ anymore anyway, but I think children deserve heroes that aren’t contrived to appease PC society.

Try netflix stuff like Daredevil and Stranger Things; they do everything nerds want while being diverse without insulting people.

Chris – the bottom line is this is just another way to exploit blacks- it makes a few bucks for comic book industry from white guilt and black racisists – what it doesn’t do is provide the type of cultural catharsis blacks need to pull their culture and communities out of the welfare ghetto (another form of political exploitation).

Diversity in fantasy publishing is hollow symbolism at best and exploitative in end result

So, we will see white Othellos, white Martin Luther Kings, black George Washington’s, Oriental Barack Obamas, and white actors playing Spawn in the movies? I have a feeling that won’t happen. Well, maybe a black Washington, but no colour shift for the rest.

The new trend in TV is to have an inter racial couple for just about every show, along with the mandatory gay person. Its becoming Politically Correct checkbox casting.

I agree, let the box office decide the winners and losers! Who cares what colour you are in a movie, if the public doesn’t like it, they won’t make any money. Those who go on and on about someone’s skin colour to give someone an advantage, are the real racists.

In the upcoming production of Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” apparently they are going with a black actor playing Roland Duchesne even though the “khatet” already had two black members in the original story. Passed over for the role of the gunslinger were Christian Bale, Xavier Bardem and Anson Mount .

My my my but Jimmy Reece is hot under the collar today. What’s the problem there Jimmy. Did somebody piss in the pickles. Take a valium there Jimmy and don’t read anything or watch TV for 24 hours. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

It may not mean that you are racist, but it certainly means that you are completely ignorant “Rebel Staff”.

If Zendaya completely embodies the character of Mary Jane, then what is the problem exactly? If she sucks as an actress, then you have reason to complain – but if she nails everything about Mary Jane minus the red hair and you have a problem with that, well then you are an idiot. Marvel knows what they are doing and have got the casting right across the board.

The reality is – you probably are racist, considering you work for a hard core conservative source. Most people supported the idea of Idris Elba as James Bond – I bet you have a huge problem with that as well.

Here is a few lines from one of my all time favourite shows, All in the Family.

“So now you’re going to tell me the black man has just as must chance as the white man to get a job?”— Michael Stivic
“More, he has more… I didn’t have no million people marchin’ and protestin’ to get me my job.”— Archie Bunker
“No, his uncle got it for him.”— Edith Bunker

I say go for it and let the box office decide if it’s a stupid idea – all these cultural marxist memes injected into classic comic book story lines have been box office duds because the people whining for this crap do not represent a majority who will pay to see SJW sanitized movies – not even close.